Lavinia
by Demeanon
Summary: Rewritten in Chapter 2. 'I am certainly glad I am not Lavinia.' The team is called to a museum to stop Red-X, and Raven discovers that someone knows more Shakespeare then they let on. Oneshot
1. Chapter 1

Demeanon: Excuse any OOC happenings you may find. This is my first TT fanfiction work- and S, when you read this, don't get angry at me. Get angry at my boredom.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans nor any works by William Shakespeare.

I vented silently over the fact that my meditation had been disrupted… again

I vented silently over the fact that my meditation had been disrupted… again. Couldn't these so-called 'villains' just wait for five minutes before disturbing the peace again? But it wasn't just any usurper of the law this time- it was Red-X. Third heist this week- it's almost as if he likes the attention he gets when he fights us.

I looked around to see where this current theft was taking place- and was not surprised to see that it was a museum. We entered loudly per usual. Finding nothing out of the ordinary in the lobby, Robin called for a solo search of all five levels. I did not see that one coming.

Isn't sarcasm a wondrous thing?

Needless to say, Beast Boy somehow did something wrong and set off the second alarums. Unfortunately, that meant that entire floors went into lockdown mode- including metal plates over the windows. Which meant there must be a lot of valuable artifacts in here.

I walked down the hallway, and was drawn by a faint noise to turn into a room with artifacts from the Globe Theatre its self, including some old props. I took a quick glance around the room and found nothing. I turned to leave and check another room when I suddenly felt a presence in the room with me. I started to gather my spiritual energy to my hands as I turned back around, only to be met with a red blurs flying at me.

At first I didn't know exactly what happened, but quickly realized that he had taped my mouth shut. Again. Only this time he had encased my hands as well. Wonderful.

Even though he was wearing a mask, it was obvious he was smirking. "Hey Sunshine." He leant against the wall as he toyed with a cylinder that probably had the stolen artifact in it. "What? No retort? That's rude you know."

He infuriates me. Being unable to test how sharp my words are, I'll just settle for attempting to make the term 'if looks could kill' a reality. It doesn't work.

"Tell you what," he says as he starts walking towards me, the cylinder hanging on his body like a rifle. "I have a game that might interest you. You win, you get this artifact back. If I win, well, you'll owe me something. Deal? Or are you afraid you'll be outsmarted by me?"

I nodded- no one insults my intelligence without some type of comeback from me. "Great then. Here's the game; if you can guess in the next two minutes which Shakespearean character I have modeled you after, you win. If you don't guess correctly, I win. Ah, but you have no tongue to call with. Pity." He snickered as I crossed my arms over my chest.

All right, I have got to concentrate. Major Shakespearean characters are all male, but there are also his non-play characters such as those in the poems he has written. And as far as I can remember currently, there are no male characters that loose their ability to speak. My eyes flicker back to Red-X to find that he has moved closer, as in so close I can see where his mask meets the neck of his jumpsuit. When did he move so close?

Okay, ignoring him. Look at the obscure things first- the sonnets. Searching my mind, I find nothing involving sonnets and anything remotely similar to my current predicament. Moving on to his poems, I start with the Phoenix and the Turtle. Nothing there and the Passionate Pilgrim wasn't authorized by Shakespeare, so that one is out. Maybe something in Venus and Adonis, but that's just abou- Ack!

I suddenly found myself hearing his light breathing right next to my ear. "C'mon Sunshine. I know you know this." I shut my eyes and try to think again.

Venus and Adonis- nothing there. The Rape of Lucrece… no, but something catches in my mind on the rape part, and I almost grasp it, only to loose focus when Red-X chuckles in my ear.

"One minute gone kid." I back up against the wall, and soon find him standing over me again, his hands planted on either side of my head.

I quickly start going through the plays that are best known- he's a thief, so probably only knows the most famous plays such as Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet. Nothing turns up, and I find myself lost amongst all the different themes in the plays. I almost feel overwhelmed, but I keep my cool head. If I broke anything here, it'd be horrible for everyone involved. Okay, think… This would be a lot easier if I didn't always find myself reminded of the close proximity every way I looked.

I fly through all the plays that someone of his caliber should know about, and still come up with nothing. Suddenly I am brought out of it all by his laughter. "Time's up Sunshine." He looks down at me expectantly. "Any guesses?"

My glare increases at the fact that he knew all along that I wouldn't be able to guess anything with the tape over my mouth. Out of some idiotic glimmer of hope, I was banking on him taking the tape off my mouth to answer.

The feeling of triumph rolls off him in torrents, and the feeling of giddiness, similar to a child getting a puppy or something they had always wanted. "I guess that means I win. Now, what on earth could you give me? Well, we only have about eight minutes left until the gates open again, so we can't do anything very strenuous." I glared, and his voice then took on a laughing tone. "Don't get all disappointed Sunshine. I assure you, if we had more time then I would have loved to take part in that activity with you. However, seeing as it is not possible, I guess I'll just settle for the next best thing."

My glare turns to one of skeptic and disbelief. If he thinks he can take that, then he has another thing coming. Once again, he twists my meaning to suit his own means.

"Well, if you really want to take part in that, then maybe we could hook up sometime? How's that sound?" I can tell by the way the mask moves that he smiles. "I was just gonna ask you for a kiss instead."

I shake my head, but he laughs. "I won, and now I get to collect my earnings. And I would like, if you please, a kiss from the amethyst of the Teen Titans." I am ignoring him now.

However, when I hear the sound of fabric moving, my eyes dart to him and find that his hand is moving up to remove the tape from over my mouth and the other is moving up to his mask. Then, it happens too quickly for my eyes to see him even move his mask. All I know is that suddenly his lips are on mine.

I just lie there. Until he pushes me up against the wall and starts trying to get me to open my mouth. Then I start trying to push him away with my semi-useless hands. His lips leave mine for a moment, and I use that moment to try and say my meditation line- only his mouth is on mine again as soon as I open my mouth.

His _**tongue**_ is in my mouth. A shudder runs through me, and I decide to just lie there and wait for him to finish. It is then that I noticed that his mouth was soft and that he wasn't even hurting me at all. Curiously enough, he was being gentle.

Then he detaches himself as his hands simultaneously both cover my mouth and roll his mask back down. Once again, I find myself glaring at him.

"Well, this was fun Sunshine. Just be glad I didn't drag you off and make you exactly like the character I mentioned earlier." He leant his forehead on mine, much to my chagrin, before continuing. "Thanks for the kiss. Would it've killed you to return it at all?" He sighed and leant back. "I'll be seein' you around then Sunshine." With that he teleported away, leaving me alone with my hands still bound.

I quickly tore them off using my powers. The rest of the team wasn't happy about the lack of the suspect when the gates opened though- and I wasn't going to tell them what happened. It was only later that I remembered who the character was.

Lavinia, from Titus Andronicus. He had even given me hints to it! 'You have no tongue to call with' is a variation of what Lavinia was told after she had been raped by Chiron and Demetrius, who also cut out her tongue and lopped off her hands. 'But she has no tongue to call, nor hands to wash.' How did I miss that?

Then I remembered what else he had said- 'Just be glad I didn't drag you off and make you exactly like the character I mentioned earlier.' I suddenly felt tainted. The way he worded it made it seem as if he had wanted to do just that.

I am certainly glad that I am not at all like Lavinia.


	2. Chapter 2

_Lavinia Rewrite_

_A/N: I was rereading my fics over the summer to try and get my inspiration back, and I realized that I didn't like how this story flowed anymore. So I rewrote it, and I hope you, dear reader, will find it pleasing._

_Thank you to my dear friend october-fog for being my beta._

* * *

As she flew through the empty museum, Raven let out a sigh. She couldn't believe her meditation had been interrupted. Again. It was the fourth time this week, and it was, yet again, the same perpetrator.

Red-X.

It was almost as if he knew when she was meditating, and she wouldn't put it past him to bug the Titan Tower. Raven had Cyborg do several tests though, and even did one herself using magic, but nothing ever turned up.

Still, his timing was annoyingly precise to when she was meditating. At least he had the decency to not interrupt her every time.

But today was no such day, as Red-X had decided to strike the Jump City Historical Museum, which had several priceless Shakespearean artifacts on loan from the British Museum and Globe Theatre. Of all of the artifacts, the most priceless was a recently uncovered original manuscript for Shakespeare's Pericles.

They had entered the museum loudly, as per usual, with Robin almost immediately calling for the group to split up. Raven, having been assigned the Globe Theatre exhibit, flew up to get a better view of the area. There was a reconstructed life-size model of part of the Globe itself in the middle of the room, and as she carefully made her way over to it, Robin's voice came over the communicator asking if anyone had seen the thief yet. No sooner had his voice crackled through her communicator did the alarms go off, the high-tech security system kicking in and locking all the doors and windows with bars.

"Hey, it wasn't me this time," Beastboy informed them through the communicator, eliciting annoyed groans from everyone before Robin's voice told them, in a commanding tone, to continue their surveying while Cyborg opened the security locks.

As Robin's voice echoed throughout the room, Raven landed lightly on the top of the model, searching for auras. As soon as she landed, her feet were knocked out from beneath her and she fell to the ground, X's covering her mouth and hands before she hit the floor.

'Crap,' she thought as she flipped back onto her feet, stubbed hands raised in a protective manner. 'He's on this floor. How did I miss him?'

"Well, well, well," a voice sounded from above her. "Looks like I've loveted myself a fine devotchka, my droogies." Red-X laughed to himself as he jumped down, landing with a flourish. "I've just read _A Clockwork Orange_, ptitsa. Can you tell?"

Raven narrowed her eyes and nodded slightly, not liking where this was going.

"Ah, but why talk of such modern literature when surrounded by the works of one of the best classics," Red-X asked as he walked around her, gesturing to the displays around them. "Especially with a classicist like yourself, Sunshine." Raven didn't take her eyes off of him, and noticed a cylindrical sheath strapped to his back.

"What, no retort? That rude, you know."

Raven glared harder and began rubbing her hands together, attempting to remove the X's.

Red-X noticed, of course, and chuckled. "Tell you what," he said as he walked closer to Raven. "I have a game that might interest you. If you win, you're free to go and I'll give you back the artifact at a later date, and we can continue our lovely game of cat and mouse. If I win, well … Let's just say you'll owe me something. Sound like fun?"

Raven shook her head and continued to struggle with her bindings – games with Red-X tended to be in his favor.

"It's a simple game of wits. Don't tell me you're worried about losing." With that, Raven stopped, glared at him, and then rolled her eyes with a nod. "Excellent. I knew you'd agree to play."

'Only because you insulted my intelligence, idiot,' Raven thought venomously.

"Alright, so the game is simple. You have to guess which Shakespeare character I've modeled you after. One guess, 60 seconds. Go." He snickered softly, and added "Ah, but you have no tongue to call with. Pity."

Raven glared, and began thinking. Red-X knew literature – that much was certain when he used Nadsat correctly and thought himself clever enough to match wits with her over literary works. Still, as a thief, he must not know much – he probably was stealing the manuscript for its monetary value, or to hold it for ransom for a larger sum. On the other hand, he knew enough to model her after a character … it definitely wasn't from any of the well known plays, and Pericles didn't have anything like this in it…

Just then, Red-X spoke up, momentarily startling Raven with his closeness. "Time's up, Sunshine. Do you have a guess yet?" Raven barely managed to hide her shudder as he whispered in her ear, and attempted to back up only to find herself caught by one of his arms. "Ah, ah, ah! Can't back out now! I've won!"

Raven glared, realizing that he had cheated, again. The feelings of triumph and anticipation rolling off of Red-X were worrisome though – what did he want from her?

The thought must have shown on her face, because her captor then announced "All I want from the amethyst of the Titans is a kiss. I would've asked for more, but your Bionic Man will have the security grid off soon." Raven's eyes widened and she began to try to push him away, but to no avail.

Using his free hand, Red-X rolled his mask up over his lips, revealing the most non-descript lower jaw Raven had ever seen. His smile was perfect though – an indicator that he once had braces. She filed away the information, hoping it would somehow prove useful. As his hand moved to remove the x from her mouth, Red-X's tongue darted across his lips as another surge of anticipation rolled off him. He moved in as the X was removed, and Raven closed her eyes, drawing in a breath of air.

"Lavinia."

Red-X stopped, disappointment showing in the downwards twitch of his lips. Next thing Raven knew, his mask was back on, and he was ten feet away again.

"Well, I did say I'd let you go if you got it," the thief said with a sigh. "Just be glad I didn't spirit you away to make your modeling complete." He shrugged at her, and before she could say anything, waved ("_Ta!"_) and disappeared with a flash and a cloud of smoke.

Raven growled and burst the X's from her hands using anger and disgust. "Pig."

She reached for her communicator to alert the rest of the Titans that Red-X had gotten away, but her hand met only air. A nearby trashcan imploded; he had taken her communicator.

"Raven, what happened?" Raven ignored Robin as she glided past him to the exit after the team met back up. "Why didn't you use your communicator?"

"Red-X stole my communicator while I was distracted," Raven replied, voice even and emotionless as ever. She opened the door, only to be met by the flashing lights of reporters. Behind her, Robin sighed and stepped forward to announce that Red-X had escaped.

Later, when they had returned to the Tower, Raven went to the roof to meditate and release her negative energies. As she phased through the top floor to the roof, a glint of metal caught her eye.

There lay the cylinder, next to a bellflower and a note that read simply "Let's play again sometime. – X"

Raven carefully picked up the cylinder and opened it only to find the cover to her communicator.

'Cheating bastard,' she thought as she shredded the note, cylinder and flower. As the debris blew away gently in the wind, she began meditating.

"Azarath Metrion Zynthos…"


End file.
